Hinge



Oct. 31, 1967 c. R. susKA 3,349,428

HINGE .Filed Aug. 27/1965 l N VEN TOR. CHARLES R. SUSKA BY M;%.MM

HIS ATTORNEYS United States Patent Ofifice 3,349,428 HKNGE Charles R. Suska, Roxbnry, Conn, assignor to The Stanley Works, New Britain, Cnn., a corporation of Connecticut Filed Aug. 27, 1965, Ser. No. 483,228 2 Claims. (Cl. 16-428) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An improvement in hinges composed of a screw eye and a screw hook, the screw eye containing a low-friction insert having a load-bearing flange engaging one side of the screw eye and the insert and the laterally extending portion of the screw hook having threads therein and thereon providing thrust and radial bearing surfaces and enabling adjustment of the door or other elements supported thereon and providing for self-closing of the hinge, if desired, this hinge cooperating with another screw eye and screw hook hinge, the screw eye containing a lowfriction insert and having a smooth central aperture cooperating with a smooth laterally extending portion of the screw hook to resist radial loads, only, on the hinge.

This invention relates to hinge mounted door constructions and the like, and particularly to improved, readily attached and adjustable hinges for facilitating the mounting and positioning of doors and the like in theirframes.

Conventional hinges having leaves provided with a plurality of interfitting knuckles joined by a hinge pin or pintle have been used for many years for mounting doors in buildings, cabinets and the like. The butt type of hinge which is widely used requires the rnortising of the door frame and the door to conceal the hinge leaves and enable a snug fit of the door in the door frame.

The face mounted hinges do not require mortising but must be located and aligned accurately to center the door in the door frame with proper clearance and hinge pin alignment.

In some types of doors, for example, prehung storm doors, piano-type hinges are used to support the door and maintain its alignment while the door frame is being mounted in a building opening. All of these hinges are satisfactory despite short-comings which have become more apparent as the technology of building has improved and changed. All of these hinges present difiiculties for the home craftsman, particularly in their installation and proper alignment and this is especially true of the butt type hinge which requires accurately located and formed mortises for receiving the hinge leaves. Likewise, even in factory assembled doors and door frames, such hinges present problems of alignment and location. In particular, the manufacture and installation of the prior hinges has involved a great deal of labor and time which adds substantially to the cost of the door construction.

Another factor of importance in the hardware industry is the cost of transportation of such hinges, particularly in relation to the competitive sales prices of such hinges.-

All of the above-described hinges are heavy and bulky and consequently the cost of shipping from one part of the country where the hinges are manufactured to another part of the country for use are high, so that amanufacturer in one part of the country cannot compete with another manufacturer in or supplying another part of the country.

Others have attempted to provide hinges of satisfactory appearance and light weight by forming the hinges of thinner or lighter weight materials but the changes in material and less attractive appearance of the hinges has failed to offset the decreased shipping costs.

3,34%,428 Patented Get. 31, 1967 Simple hinges formed of inexpensive and readily available parts such as screw eyes have been used, for example, in folding furniture, gate hinges and the like, where appearance and accuracy of fit and positioning of parts are of no moment. However, these hinges have not been made as precision parts or made suitable in appearance for such uses as door hinges, cabinet hinges and the like where an attractive appearance and satisfactory operation are essential.

In accordance with the present invention, hinges are provided which are composed of readily available and inexpensive parts, such as, for example, screw eyes or screws and screw hooks togther with suitable inserts assembled in such relation that a strong, freely movable and precisely aligned and operating hinge assembly is obtained.

Hinges of the type embodying the present invention have many advantages over the prior art leaf type hinge in that ready and precise adjustment of pairs or multiple hinges is possible to bring them into accurate alignment and to locate a door accurately with respect to the door frame by screwing the screw eyes or screw eye and screw hook into the frame and door to greater or lesser extents. By use of a bearing insert having low friction properties, the hinges, according to the present invention, operate silently and easily without lubrication and provide longer trouble-free life under any and all normal service conditions. Moreover, hinges embodying the present invention can be readjusted easily even after installation to maintain proper door alignment if warpage of the door should occur or misalignment results from shifting of the building or other structure in which the hinges are used.

Moreover, the new hinges greatly facilitate the hanging of prehung doors by enabling the door to be packed with the frame and allowing the door to be unhinged readily from the frame to enable the frame to be attached in a building opening without the weight of the door thereon. Also, the new hinges are of such construction that when a door mounted with them is closed, it cannot be unhung or removed as is the case with doors having removable hinge pins or pintles.

Of great commercial significance is the fact that the new hinges are less bulky and much lighter in weight than leaf hinges of equivalent strength and hence can be shipped or transported from place to place and can be stored and handled much more economically. Also, the new hinges can be readily installed by the home craftsman with a minimum of tools and experience and without the problems involved in mortising, aligning and positioning the hinges and the like, which the ordinary home craftsman may be ill-equipped to solve.

In particular, some forms of the new hinges require only the predrilling of two holes which can be accomplished by means of a hand or electric drill and after installation of the hinges precise alignment of the hinge pins of spaced apart hinges and proper positioning of a door in a door opening can be accompjlished by screwing the hinge members into and out of the holes.

For a better understanding of the present invention, reference may be had to the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a partial front elevational view of a door installation embodying this invention;

FIGURE 2 is a sectional View taken along line 2-2 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is an exploded view, partly in section, of a modified form of the hinge made according to this invention; and

FIGURE 4 is a sectional view similar to FIGURE 2 showing another modified form of the invention as applied to an inset door mounted to a metal frame.

Referring ot the drawings in which like numerals refer to like parts throughout the various figures, FIGURE 1 illustrates a door installation embodying this invention wherein the door is mounted for relative swinging movement in a door frame 12 by a pair of hinges generally indicated by the numerals l4 and 16.

The hinge 14 comprises a pair of hinge members such as a screw eye 18 and a screw hook 20, each formed of round rod or wire and having a threaded shank. The shank is preferably of uniform diameter from one end substantially to the other and provided with a gimlet point. Such a construction can be adjusted axially without materially changing the strength of its threaded engagement within an aperture in the door 10. The other end of the screw eye 18 forms an annular loop or eye 26 which is in horizontal alignment with the shank 22.

As shown in FIGURE 2, screw hooks is provided with a threaded shank 28 of round cross section. Shank 28 is of uniform diameter from one end substantially to the other and is provided with a gimlet point whereby it may be adjustably threaded within an aperture of the frame member formed by drilling with a suitable hand or electric drill and with the aid of a template.

As illustrated, the threaded shank 28 of the screw hook 20 projects horizontally from the doorway frame member 12 and has its outer end bent substantially at right angles to the plane occupied by the shank 28 to form a hinge pintle 30. The pintle 30 is threaded to provide a helical bearing surface which operates in a manner hereinafter more fully described.

It is readily apparent from the foregoing that the screw eye 18 and the screw hook 20 can readily and inexpensively be fabricated from lengths of round rod or wire and the threads thereon can be formed in any convenient way, such as by thread rolling.

Seated within the loop or eye 26 of the screw eye 18 is an aperture internally threaded bearing member 32. The internal threads of bearing member 32 are complementary to those of pintle 30 to provide a helical bearing surface which cooperates with the pintle 30 to transmit all loads therebetween. The bearing member 32 is molded or otherwise formed of a suitable long-wearing bearing material having the properties of low surface friction and the absence of cold flow under normal operation, such as nylon or Delrin. As shown, the threads providing the helical bearing surfaces for pintle 30 and member 32 constitute a plurality of turns of acme threads; it being understood that other thread forms could be utilized. The member 32, as shown in FIGURE 1, is provided with a circumferential flange 34 which extends beneath the loop 26 of the screw eye 18 to transmit gravity loads therebetween, and the outer periphery of member 32 engages the inner periphery of the loop 26 to transmit radial loads therebetween.

Member 32 is nonrotatably and releasably secured in the loop 26 of the screw eye 18. As shown in FIGURE 2, a radially extending protuberance or projection 38 formed on the member 32 is positioned in the gap 40 at the terminal portion of the loop 26 to prevent relative rotation.

While a pair of identical hinges 14 can be utilized in mounting the door 10, it is also within the scope of this invention and as shown in FIGURE 1, to use a second hinge 16 which is effective only in carrying radial loads. As shown, the hinge 16 includes a screw eye 42 which is substantially the same as the screw eye 18 as shown in FIGURE 2 and is provided with an insert 44 comprising a suitable bearing material, such as nylon or Delrin.

The other hinge member 46 of the hinge 16 is similar to the screw hook 20 of hinge 14 and is provided with a shank 48, which is preferably threaded and of round cross section with uniform diameter and with a gimlet point at its end, and an unthreaded pintle 50 bent at right angles to the shank 48.

In mounting the door 10 in the frame 12, the shank portions of each of the hinges 14 and 16 are installed in the desired positions on the door and door frame, respectively, as, for example, in holes which may be readily drilled or formed by the home craftsman or a manufacturer. With the hinge members of the hinges 14 and 16 so mounted and with the pintles 30 and 50 thereof in axial alignment, the member 32 is threaded onto the pintle 30 of the hinge 14 and the door lifted so that the apertures of the hinge members 18 and 42 are positioned concentric with the ends of the pintles, respectively. The lowering of the door so that the loop 26 of the screw eye 18 is positioned around the bearing member 32 and the apertured bearing insert 44 is positioned around the pintle 5t) completes the mounting of the door.

If the door 10 is not coplanar with its frame 12, this condition may be corrected by removing the door and rotating one or more of the hinge members of the hinges 14 and 16 until the desired relationship is obtained. Moreover, if the gap 11 between the door and the door frame is not uniform from one end to the other or suitably balanced with the corresponding gap between the swinging edge of the door and the frame, this may likewise be adjusted in a similar manner. With the use of cyclindrical shanks on the hinge members, these adjustments may be made without substantially affecting the capacity of the hinge to support the door.

With the door so adjusted, it may be opened and closed in the usual manner with the relatively rotatable mating helical bearing surfaces of the pintle 30 and the bearing member 32 serving to transmit the weight of the door from the screw eye 18 to the screw hook 20 with the hinge 16 stabilizing the position of the other end of the door.

If it is desired to raise or lower the door relative to the floor or the door frame 12, this may be done by lifting the door sufficiently to remove projection 38 from gap 40 so that the bearing member 32 can be rotated one or more turns relative to pintle 30 and then lowering the door so that the projection 38 is repositioned in the gap 40.

It is readily apparent that if a second hinge 14 were substituted for the hinge 16 and if the projection 38 is replaced on one of the bearing members by a plurality of peripheral serrations or it is nonrotatably secured in adjusted position by a friction fit, the distribution of the weight between the hinges could be adjusted by the relative rotation of the bearing members 32 of the two hinges.

Referring now particularly to FIGURE 3, there is shown a second embodiment of a hinge utilized in this invention wherein the hinge is formed of a pair of substantially identical screw eyes 60, 62. In this second embodiment, the upper screw eye 60 has an inserted bearing member 32 like the member 32 shown in FIGURE 1. In this second embodiment, however, the pintle 64 is a member separate from the screw eye 62 and, as shown, comprises an externally threaded stud formed of metal which is molded or otherwise fixed as an insert in a supporting cap member 66 which may be formed of any suitable material such as nylon or Delrin. The cap member 66 is nonrotatably secured relative to the screw eye 62 such as by means of a projection 70 which engages a gap in the loop portion of the screw eye 62. The cap 66 is also provided with a radial annular flange 68 to support the cap on the screw eye 62.

In the embodiment of FIGURE 4, the metal door frame 12a is provided with an internally threaded tubular mounting insert 51 which is secured to the frame in any suitable manner, such as welding, and the inset wooden door 10a is predrilled and an insert 53 formed of a suitable metal or plastic is driven into the predrilled hole so as to be concealed therein. Preferably, the insert 53 is provided with external axial ribs 53a to prevent rotation of the insert relative to the door 10a. The forward end of the insert may be tapered as shown at 53b so as to center the insert and to facilitate driving it into the predrilled hole of the door a. If desired, the insert 53 may be secured to the door 10a by adhesives or other fastening devices.

Where inserts such as 51 and 53 are used in the practice of the invention, it is preferable to utilize machine screw threads on the shanks of the hinge members to provide a finer adjustability of the axial position of the hinge members due to the finer pitch of such threads, it being understood that the higher shear strength of the material forming the inserts will provide sufiicient holding power to maintain the shank of the hinge member threadably engaged with the insert.

From the foregoing, it will be apparent that this invention provides for a door installation incorporating a hinge construction whereby the door may be adjusted in all directions after the hinge members are fixed to the door and door jamb respectively.

As will be apparent to persons skilled in the art, various modifications and adaptations of the structure above described will become readily apparent without departure from the spirit and scope of the invention. For example, hinge members and 46 may be assembled with their respective shanks 28 and 48 positioned above the hinge members 18 and 42, respectively, so that their pintle portions are directed downwardly through the apertures of hinge members 18 and 42 which are positioned as shown in FIGURE 1. Also, the entire hinge 14 may be inverted and the screw hook 20 be secured to the door 10 and the screw eye 18 secured to the door jamb 12. Moreover, by proper selection of thread pitch and surface coefficient of friction, the hinges can cause the door to be self-opening or self-closing. Accordingly, the scope and the features of novelty which characterize the invention is defined in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A hinge mounting a door member and the like for swinging movement, comprising a screw eye having a threaded shank and an annular eye, a low-friction bearing member fitting in said eye and having a load-bearing flange at one end thereof engaging one side of said eye,

said bearing member having a multiple turn threaded aperture therein substantially coaxial with said eye, and an L-shaped hinge member having a threaded shank and a multiple turn externally threaded pintle portion extending substantially perpendicular to the threaded shank of said L-shaped hinge member and threaded into the threaded aperture in said bearing member with said threaded shank opposing said one end of said bearing member.

2. A pair of hinges for mounting a door member and the like comprising a pair of screw eyes, a low-friction bearing member having a central bore fitting in each eye, one of said bearing members having an axial load-bearing flange at one end thereof engaging one side of one of said screw eyes. L-shaped hinge members corresponding to each screw eye and each L-shaped member having a threaded shank and a laterally extending pintle portion, said pintle portions of said L-shaped members engaging in said bores of said bearing members in corresponding screw eyes, the bore of said one of said bearing members having a multiple turn thread therein and the pintle portion engaging in said bore having a multiple turn thread thereon engaging the threads in said bore, and the bore of the other bearing member and the pintle portion of the other L-shaped member being devoid of threads.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,278,642 9/1918 Spence et al. 16-128 1,517,205 11/1924 Flagg 16-128 2,779,966 2/1957 Torchia 16-133 2,828,668 4/1958 De Angelis 16-168 2,904,824 9/ 1959 Kuehl 16-153 3,295,158 1/1967 Hotchkiss et al, 16-158 FOREIGN PATENTS 249,028 1/ 1964 Australia.

MARVIN A. CHAMPION, Primary Examiner. DORIS L. TROUTMAN, Assistant Examiner. 

1. A HINGE MOUNTING A DOOR MEMBER AND THE LIKE FOR SWINGING MOVEMENT, COMPRISING A SCREW EYE HAVING A THREADED SHANK AND AN ANNULAR EYE, A LOW-FRACTION BEARING MEMBER FITTING IN SAID EYE AND HAVING A LOAD-BEARING FLANGE AT ONE END THEREOF ENGAGING ONE SIDE OF SAID EYE, SAID BEARING MEMBER HAVING A MULTIPLE TURN THREADED APERTURE THEREIN SUBSTANTIALLY COAXIAL WITH SAID EYE, AND AN L-SHAPED HINGE MEMBER HAVING A THREADED SHANK AND A MULTIPLE TURN EXTERNALLY THREADED PINTLE PORTION EXTENDING SUBSTANTIALLY PERPENDICULAR TO THE THREADED SHANK OF SAID L-SHAPED HINGE MEMBER AND THREADED INTO THE THREADED APERTURE IN SAID BEARING MEMBER WITH SAID 